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To: stockman_scott who wrote (80174)	5/17/2010 3:57:44 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 89467

time to shut this wind power down Sailing students spend 40 hours in life boats after ship sinks Training ship Concordia which sank off the coast of Brazil The 188-foot-long Concordia was sunk in a freak gust of wind Anne Barrowclough Dozens of sailing students were forced to spend over 40 hours in life rafts being battered by huge seas, after their training ship sank off the coast of Brazil last Wednesday. The three-masted SV Concordia was part way through a five month voyage around the world when a sudden, vertical blast of wind knocked the 188-foot-long ship on its side, forcing the 48 students and 16 training staff to scramble for the life boats before it sank. All 64 people aboard were rescued by Brazilian navy early on Friday. After docking at Rio de Janeiro, the exhausted survivors described their ordeal which had left many wondering if they would die before rescue arrived. The ship's captain William Curry said the Concordia's crew had prepared a day beforehand for what they anticipated would be rough but not unusual weather. He was below deck when the ship suddenly keeled, which was not unusual. But when it immediately keeled a second time Mr Curry said he knew instantly the vessel was in great danger. Related Links * Scallop dredger capsizes killing three crew * Boat capsize led to death of cadet Mr Curry blamed the wreck on a 'microburst,' a sudden, vertical downdraft of wind. When the boat keeled, the entire surface area of the sails was exposed to the powerful wind, and within 15 seconds, the boat went from sailing normally, upright, to lying on its side and beginning to sink. Thirty minutes later it was completely underwater, Mr Curry said. "The ship had gone from sailing upright to being on her side in the water in about 15 or 20 seconds," Mr Curry said. "I knew, of course, that the blow to the ship was fatal and that she was not going to right." Lauren Unsworth, a 16-year-old Dutch-Canadian who lives in Amsterdam, said; "The boat started keeling a lot. It came back up, keeled again, was basically lying on its side and all the windows began to break. That's when we knew it was time to flee." Although the Concordia's radio equipment was underwater and unusable, making it imposible for the crew to call for help, the boat's emergency beacon was automatically released into the water. However the crew spent more than a day adrift in the Atlantic before spotting the first signs of rescuers. "We had been in the life raft for about 30 hours when we saw a search plane for the first time," Ms Unsworth said. "That's when we knew we were not alone and that help was on the way." Keaton Farwell, 17, of Toronto, said students panicked as they grew increasingly concerned their signal had not been heard. "My biggest fear was that nobody knew we had sunk," said Mr Farwell. "We thought our signal had failed and nobody knew and it could be weeks before we were saved. The worst life-and-death thoughts were going through our heads, and everybody was panicking." timesonline.co.uk